Tuesday 27 November 2012

Happy Feet and Happy Me - Week 34.Serving in Cagayan

Heads up! What a great week it is for us! I am so happy these past few days and even the members and my co-missionaries have seen the change in me. I am so comfortable to have Elder Panti as my new companion. Still, I am grateful for the things I've learned from Elder Pangilinan and with this new transfer I know that we're on a new road of learning.

The Stake Conference was so great. I love the talks especially President Pagaduan's talk if we know for ourselves if the church is true. And it motivated me to think of our Less-Actives and Investigators to really know their testimony about the truthfulness of the church as well as the Gospel in their lives. Last Sunday, we had our Ward Council Meeting and our Bishop invited us to help them plan on what we need in order to progress the work since for the past months, they don't have baptisms and they are having a hard time in retaining those that have been baptized in the past year. And our Bishop got inspired with President's talk last Saturday since he shared it to us and he really felt it. Now, the ward is trying to organize Missionary Work by calling new Ward Missionaries, a functional Ward Mission Leader and a fixed meeting with us. It's a great change that happened in the ward as we start on this new transfer.

Anyways, this week is an interesting week. Though we had low stats this week. I know that work was affected with transfers and panted appointments. It was funny because if the people that we'll be teaching is not at their homes, something will happen. Just like with our investigator who has a baptismal date. We were suppose to start the lesson then an emergency happened since he needs to donate blood at the hospital at our fixed time with him since his soon to be wife's grandmother will undergo surgery. Also, with one of our progressing investigators as well, we've followed-up on our last lesson, everything is all in place to start the lesson and by the time we were about to pray, Sister J's son woke up and cried for like 10 minutes nonstop, so Sister J just told us to come back another time. Just a few of our unusual things that happened to us.

Well, our investigators didn't progress that much this week. Only Brother Z and Sister J who read their reading assignment. As for our Less-Actives, the P family experienced a great challenge in their family since the head of the family passed away. So, we extended our help to them by strengthening their faith and by next week, one of the daughters of Brother P told us that her family will come back to church and they will attend this Sunday. They told us that they've realized that they really need to stay active. Sister told us that she fears that her family will not be ready if the time for them to depart from this world comes so she wants them to be prepared just like what the scripture says in Alma 34:32. I can't wait to see them be active again. That challenge have become a turning point in their lives to try their faith and to choose whether to come back to church or not. Elder Panti and I really felt their desire. We will report on their progress next week.

As for our companionship, it's an overwhelming and learning experience for me to be a Senior missionary. I am so happy because both me and Elder Panti are united in our purpose and both of us desires to be diligent and obedient in doing the Lord's work. We are experiencing spirit-filled experiences each day and I'm excited for the next coming weeks. I do hope that our companionship would last for quite a while because I am learning a lot from him.

This week, we've carefully planned our work and both of us agreed that we need to set goals that we can achieve and then raise it until we become consistent in our work efforts. I know that our goals is just a head-start but we committed ourselves to really "lose ourselves in the work" by having a productive planning, evaluation, personal and companionship study, and the like even though we are assigned here in the office. And I'm really excited to for the new things the Lord wants to teach me.

Thank you guys for all you do. I don't know but I'm just happy, even my co-office Missionaries always tell me. All I know is that I feel more comfortable and I feel the Spirit even stronger. I know that I still have a lot to learn and overcome my weaknesses. And like what you told me, I want to fully submit myself to His will. It will be hard but I know it is for the best.

Sincerely,
Elder Dimazana
Philippines Cagayan De Oro Mission

No comments:

Post a Comment